Did I mention the door handle?

Imagine this. You're test driving a car. You're about to climb in the driver’s seat and the salesperson reaches out to get the door for you.

As he or she does, they offer this… 

“As you're getting in, allow me to draw your attention this component here. It's called a door handle. When you pull out on it, the door OPENS. Impressive, right?”

And as you sit down, they continue with the following…

“That round device in front of your there, it spins, so that you can STEER the car. We call that a steering wheel. How clever is that!?!? You have total control of the car!”

It’s preposterous, right? Of course it is. It’s ridiculous.

So let me ask you a question.

Why do we do the same thing when demonstrating software?

Why do we draw attention to the most mundane and unimpressive features in the UI?

I think it's because in the absence of a compelling story, we default to the harbor tour. We feel obligated to say something, so we just start pointing things out, regardless of whether they are even marginally interesting or unique.

I literally overheard a sales engineer draw attention to the fact that when he logged into the platform his name was displayed in the upper right-hand corner! He went on to say that the benefit was that he could see that he was logged in as himself.

Really?

If you give software demos for a living, please don't attempt to make something out of nothing. Don't draw attention to things that virtually every software platform on the planet can do. You're only making yourself - and your tool - look bad.

Draw attention to the capabilities that truly make your platform unique.

And don't tell me about the tool. Show me how my day job - my life - is going to be better because of the things that your platform enables me to do. Show us as an organization how we are going to transform as a result of your solution.

If I’m giving you my time to see a demo, chances are I WANT to like you. I WANT to like your product. I'm hoping that your solution is actually going to make my life better. I’m hoping to see something impressive. Please don’t disappoint me. I’m not going to be very impressed if you go out of your way to draw attention to features that any reasonable product should have.

If you do, I’ll likely use the door handle to open the door, climb in, grab the steering wheel and drive away.